?When asked to name as many cuisines as possible, Turkish likely won’t be amongst the first few that come out of your mouth, but it should. Turkish cuisine feels familiar enough to remind you of home-cooked flavors, but also feels foreign enough to be exciting. Cairo-based Turkish restaurant Nişantaşi has artfully mastered that balance.

It’s like stepping into your grandmother’s vintage salon. Nişantaşi draws lots of inspiration from its namesake Turkish district; it’s classical, maximalist, and — perhaps most importantly — feels like home. The restaurant has two branches, one in Nasr City’s City Stars, and the other at Cairo Festival City Mall, with views of CFC’s Village fountain. We opted to visit the latter…a couple of times.

Be it breakfast, lunch, or dinner, this Turkish destination is ready to serve. Nişantaşi’s menu is expansive without feeling overwhelming, if you’re going for breakfast, the restaurant serves a mean shakshouka, spectacular simit, sojouk omelettes, and even croissants if you’re not feeling adventurous.

For our first visit, we ordered a little bit of everything off the breakfast menu, and discovered lots of hits, and barely any misses. The star of the show was the simit with scrambled eggs and spinach, which all but literally melted into our mouths. A subjective miss? The scrambled eggs were a little too basic, especially when compared to the rest of the breakfast offerings.

Now, for the encore. We returned a mere few hours later as curiosity began bubbling inside — if breakfast was this good, what would lunch look like? For round two, we got the the meze plate — complete with five different cold appetizers and dips — the Yaprak Sarma (stuffed vine leaves), Za’atar Pide (essentially a manouche), the Saç Kavurma (a tender beef stew), and a kebab sandwich. To put it simply, the plates were wiped clean.

Our humble verdict: The citrusy stuffed vine leaves disappeared almost immediately, followed by the Za’tar pide, which was hot and fresh to the point of tears (happy ones, that is.) Though our appetites had begun to wane, they were quickly reignited at the sight of the Saç Kavurma. The spice-riddled beef dish undoubtedly reigned supreme given its tenderness, and is one we’ll definitely be going back for. The sandwich did not disappoint either, yet once again paled in comparison.

Dine in, or order from the comfort of your own home. You can find Nişantasi at City Stars or Cairo Festival City Mall. You can also order through Talabat or El Menus.

? Per person: EGP 900-1k

? Outdoor seating: Yes

? Alcohol: No

? Accessibility friendly: Yes

Tags: